Arab League

Topics

Since medieval times, the Kurdish has been a separate nation with its distinct culture, yet statehood persistently seemed out of reach. Autonomy was eventually granted to the Kurdish in Northern Iraq, or what the Kurdish consider as “Southern Kurdistan”, but self-determination remained distant in the other parts of “Greater Kurdistan”. With the changing political climate and geopolitical situation in the Middle East, would the Kurdish finally have a chance at greater autonomy within all of what they consider their homelands? Conflict of interests between member states will make this multifaceted issue a controversial topic to discuss.

The Arab Spring might have led to various democratisation efforts of several member states, including the liberalisation of press freedoms, yet other states have remained oppressive of their press. The Arab World has been infamous for its oppression of the press, through methods such as kidnaps, forced arrests and even outright murder of journalists. With the recent case of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, the issue of press freedoms in the Arab World has yet again been thrust into the spotlight. How free should the press be? Member states must reconcile their differences to formulate a common solution.

Chairs

Head Chair: Kynan Ho

Kynan is a Year 6 student, taking the most mundane subject combination possible, PCME (though he sorely regrets not taking history). Being the last MUN he’ll attend before a hiatus in preparation for the dreaded A levels, Kynan is honoured to chair the Arab League in his second year in the circuit. Having seen the importance of ROP (the lack of which commonly resulted in utter chaos in council), Kynan is particularly strict with regards to its implementation – then again, delegates should take comfort that council will proceed smoothly under his guidance (and totally not his iron fist). Other than being noticeably pro-Russian, spending all his free time (or whatever that is left) listening to Soviet/ Russian songs, Kynan’s interests includes Astronomy (trivia), amateur engineering and vexillology – he claims to be able to identify any national flag with at least 90% accuracy. As with his previous chairing experience, Kynan hopes to see fruitful and eventful debate in council, especially in the unique regional context of the Arab League. Resolved to bring to delegates the best MUN experience they will ever encounter, Kynan decides to remain actively seized on the matter.

Deputy Chair: Travis Tan

Travis is a Year 5 student in Raffles Institution’s Humanities Programme. As a former AL delegate in RMUN 2018, he is honoured to return to the council where his MUN journey began. Outside of MUNs, Travis can be found poring over The Guardian and The New York Times (the unequivocal two best newspapers), asleep on the benches around school, or attempting to relive his days as a Cross Country runner by going on occasional 8pm trots. Contrary to popular opinion, his favourite subject is Economics, and his nemesis is Mathematics. Coincidentally, Travis is also in Raffles Institution’s Middle East Programme.

After amassing 5 conferences’ worth of MUN experience, Travis firmly believes that the amount of effort one invests in each conference determines how much he gains from his MUN journey. Travis hopes to see all delegates give their utmost in during these 3 days of debate, and hopes to help everyone forge indelible memories from RMUN 2019.